Russian Proton Rocket Suffers Launch Failure

by Stephen Clark | March 15, 2008 02:24pm ET

For the second time in six
months, a commercial launch of the Russian Proton rocket ended in failure early
Saturday after an undetermined problem struck the booster's upper stage,
leaving the mission's DISH Network broadcasting payload in a useless orbit.

The failure occurred near
the end of the 34-minute-long second burn of the launcher's Breeze M upper
stage, which features a single engine powered by explosive hydrazine and
nitrogen tetroxide propellants.

"The satellite failed
to reach the planned orbit," International Launch Services said in a
written statement.

The Proton was carrying AMC
14, a communications satellite owned by SES AMERICOM, a New Jersey-based
satellite operator, destined to beam direct-to-home television programming for
DISH Network.

ILS officials provided no
further details on the nature of the failure, but Roscosmos, the Russian space
agency, reported the Breeze M engine shut down two minutes and 13 seconds
earlier than planned.

In an update posted on its
Web site, Roscosmos said the stage and the AMC 14 payload reached an orbit with
a high point of about 17,400 miles, about 5,000 miles short of the intended
altitude at the end of the burn.

The Breeze M deployed the
spacecraft shortly after the early engine shutdown, and SES AMERICOM will now
be faced with making future plans for the stranded satellite, Roscosmos said.

AMC 14 could reach its
target orbit if there is enough space fuel on-board, or officials could elect
to use a dramatic lunar flyby to use the moon's gravity to slingshot the craft
into geosynchronous orbit. Such a maneuver succeeded in 1998 for AsiaSat 3,
another satellite victim of a Proton failure.

Owners of other
communications birds left in low orbits have considered similar measures, but
opted instead to de-orbit their satellites for insurance purposes.

It is unclear what options
SES AMERICOM may consider for AMC 14.

ILS is the firm responsible
for commercially marketing the Proton rocket to international customers. The
U.S.-based company is jointly owned by Space Transport Inc. and Khrunichev, the
Russian manufacturer of the Proton rocket and Breeze M upper stage.

Friday's launch was the
45th for ILS since it began Proton missions in 1996. Five of those flights have
been unsuccessful, and four of the failures were caused by upper stage
malfunctions.

The failure also marked the
second
botched launch of a commercial Proton mission in just over six months.
Another ILS Proton crashed to Earth on Sept. 5 after a damaged electrical cable
caused an anomaly during the separation of the rocket's first and second
stages.

Since the September
failure, the Proton had successfully completed six flights for Russian
government and commercial customers.

The Proton flight appeared
flawless during the first hour of flight. Liftoff of the 184-foot-tall rocket
was at 2318:55 GMT (7:18:55 p.m. EDT) Friday, or early Saturday morning at the
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Proton disappeared into
thick clouds about 40 seconds after launch, eventually jettisoning its first
stage just over two minutes into the flight. The rocket's second and third
stages both fired as planned, propelling the Breeze M upper stage and the
9,127-pound AMC 14 satellite into a suborbital trajectory within the first ten
minutes of the mission.

The Breeze M fired first to
loft AMC 14 into a circular parking orbit with an altitude of about 107 miles
and an inclination of 51.5 degrees to the equator.

The botched second burn was
to have further boosted the payload into an elongated transfer orbit with a
high point of 22,211 miles and a low point of 553 miles.

A final maneuver nearly
seven hours after liftoff would have drastically raised the transfer orbit's
perigee to 3,888 miles and reduced its inclination to 19.7 degrees, much closer
to the satellite's eventual target of zero degrees. The third firing would have
been closely followed by spacecraft separation in a normal launch.

Russian officials set up a
state investigation commission to scrutinize the failure, and ILS will form its
own oversight board to review the commission's findings and assemble a report.

"ILS remains committed
to providing reliable, timely launch services for all of its customers,"
ILS said a written statement. "To this end, ILS will work diligently with
its partner Khrunichev to return Proton to flight as soon as possible."

Built by Lockheed Martin
Corp., AMC 14 would have been parked in geosynchronous orbit at 61.5 degrees
west longitude. The satellite's 32 Ku-band transponders were designed to serve
the continental United States during a 15-year mission.

SES AMERICOM was to have
tested the high-power satellite's communications instruments before handing it
over to EchoStar Corp.

A corporate customer of SES
AMERICOM's direct broadcasting unit, EchoStar would have used the spacecraft to
beam high-definition television programming directly into homes and businesses
across the continental United States under the DISH Network umbrella.

Communications specialists
were also eager to test AMC 14's next-generation phased array antenna, a leap
in technology that allows satellites to reshape their ground coverage in orbit.